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Looking for tips on mass building

We all know Will is the genius of building gajillions of sites in a short time frame, but for those of us that are not used to doing it - what tips can you offer?

For example, I have a small goal to own at least 50 websites that pertain to my interests within 2 years. What would be the BEST way to go about doing this? I am a content producing machine and incredibly creative - so content is NOT an issue. Time really isn't an issue either because I am highly organized and dedicated.

We all know Will is the genius of building gajillions of sites in a short time frame ...

I wish! Lately, it seems that I've screwed up more things than Jimmy Carter!

Originally Posted by gavenecko

For example, I have a small goal to own at least 50 websites that pertain to my interests within 2 years.

My current mini-site project is somewhat of an aberration. Google tends to prefer larger sites, so it is generally better to build one large site than 50 small ones.

The exceptions to this rule are:

Exact match com/net/org domain names

Building site for linking (instead of for traffic)

Originally Posted by gavenecko

What would be the BEST way to go about doing this?

I am not certain there is one best way. There are many trade-offs to be considered among various approaches.

Originally Posted by gavenecko

I am a content producing machine and incredibly creative - so content is NOT an issue. Time really isn't an issue either because I am highly organized and dedicated.

These are excellent attributes, but they do point you to a "doing everything yourself" approach that may eventually slow down progress.

Originally Posted by gavenecko

... for those of us that are not used to doing it - what tips can you offer?

Choose a good host -- Don't go cheap and don't try to do your own server management if you can avoid it. Time is money.

Choose the right CMS -- I used to do everything in SHTML and that limited my ability to get other people working on my sites. We do 90% of sites in Wordpress now. We use more heavyweight CMS's like Joomla or Drupal for projects with steeper requirements. We use vBulletin and phpLD as appropriate.

Keep yourself organized --- write everything down. Soon you will be engaged in so many different tasks that you won't be able to remember your own name. Document, document, document -- and keep your documentation structured.

Subcontract to specialists -- Subcontract to people who can accomplish specialized tasks faster (and therefore cheaper) than you.

Focus on quality -- Quality content will slowly and steadily become more valuable over time, as it earns natural inbound links. Low-quality content will devour your marketing budget on a continual basis.

Test and measure -- One of the most common weaknesses of people in this field is that they believe what they are told. Don't fall for this trap. Test and measure everything possible. This is the only way you will be able to make wise decisions regarding future investments of your time and money.

I can't add much to what Will just said, but definitely I'd like to emphasize the "Choose a good host" part of it, with a special reinforcement in the backup plans, never, ever rely on their backups, BACKUP DAILY and make sure you always have a handy copy of your files and databases, just in case...

If only you all could see how organized my current documentation is. I am VERY OCD about documents.

Also, for Will, I have a lot of "personal" knowledge on some subjects that are very close to my heart. Like pets for example. I wanted to make individual wordpress pages for each type of animal that I am an expert on. (Which is quite a few, and I take this all VERY seriously.) Would it be better to have different domains for each, or just one site with all of the different content?

Dig freshdrop.net for example and find a good Pets related domain, something aged and with backlinks if possible, then just start writing about it and concentrate everything under that single domain.
Like Will just said, Google loves large (aged) sites.

Just dug it for you

petwiz.com is available (short and brandable 6 y/o domain)

BTW, if you wanna have further inspiration, read this post (specially the part about animalinfo.org):

Dig freshdrop.net for example and find a good Pets related domain, something aged and with backlinks if possible, then just start writing about it and concentrate everything under that single domain.
Like Will just said, Google loves large (aged) sites.

I'm going to end up handing out "thanks" like candy. Yet another great tip! I feel like I'm learning SO much at once. Its a great feeling. Thank you. I will consider that.